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Sabalenka Determined to Stay World Number One after Leapfrogging Swiatek

Wuhan Open - Optics Valley International Tennis Center, Wuhan, China - October 13, 2024 Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka celebrates with the trophy after winning her final match against China's Qinwen Zheng. (Reuters)
Wuhan Open - Optics Valley International Tennis Center, Wuhan, China - October 13, 2024 Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka celebrates with the trophy after winning her final match against China's Qinwen Zheng. (Reuters)
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Sabalenka Determined to Stay World Number One after Leapfrogging Swiatek

Wuhan Open - Optics Valley International Tennis Center, Wuhan, China - October 13, 2024 Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka celebrates with the trophy after winning her final match against China's Qinwen Zheng. (Reuters)
Wuhan Open - Optics Valley International Tennis Center, Wuhan, China - October 13, 2024 Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka celebrates with the trophy after winning her final match against China's Qinwen Zheng. (Reuters)

Aryna Sabalenka's return to top spot in the WTA rankings after leapfrogging Iga Swiatek has set up a thrilling end to the season, with next month's WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia likely to prove decisive in the race to end the year as world number one.

Sabalenka has enjoyed a spectacular season, defending her Australian Open title in January and adding the US Open trophy to her cabinet last month, as well as enjoying victories in Cincinnati and Wuhan.

Players are mandated to compete in six WTA 500 events but Swiatek's decision to skip the tour's Asian swing due to fatigue meant the French Open champion will only manage to play in two this season.

The penalties saw her drop below Poland's Sabalenka in the rankings.

Sabalenka spent eight weeks at the summit last year before Swiatek overtook her with a victory at the season-ending WTA Finals and the Belarusian hopes for a longer stay as "N1".

"N1... Let's see for how long this time," she posted on X on Monday after the latest rankings were released.

Sabalenka is also not in action this week after her Wuhan success and will lose points for only playing in four WTA 500 events. She currently has 9,706 points while Swiatek has 9,665 ahead of the Finals, which will offer 1,500.

The Finals will be held on hard courts in Riyadh from Nov. 2-9 and feature the top eight singles players and doubles teams.

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Swiatek Defends Coach and Psychologist Despite Disappointing Results

Tennis - Italian Open - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 6, 2025 Poland's Iga Swiatek during a press conference REUTERS/Yves Herman
Tennis - Italian Open - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 6, 2025 Poland's Iga Swiatek during a press conference REUTERS/Yves Herman
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Swiatek Defends Coach and Psychologist Despite Disappointing Results

Tennis - Italian Open - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 6, 2025 Poland's Iga Swiatek during a press conference REUTERS/Yves Herman
Tennis - Italian Open - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 6, 2025 Poland's Iga Swiatek during a press conference REUTERS/Yves Herman

Iga Swiatek has failed to win a tournament in almost a year, but the Polish world number two has defended her coach and psychologist despite the poor run of results and losing her place at the top of the world rankings in a difficult period.
Swiatek parted ways with her coach Tomasz Wiktorowski in October after three years, adding Belgian Wim Fissette to her team and in November accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for banned substance trimetazidine.
The five-time Grand Slam winner has drawn a blank since winning last year's French Open, and her latest result saw Swiatek lose her Madrid Open title in a crushing 6-1 6-1 semi-final defeat to Coco Gauff last week.
"Sometimes I'm not happy with the way I play. It's natural, especially with my perfectionism. This can be seen on the court," Swiatek told Polish media outlet SportoweFakty in an interview.
"However, when I come off it, I can look at the season from a broader perspective.
"Then I find a lot of positives. Reaching the quarter-finals or semi-finals is a good result. Again, I am the most even player of the whole season."
According to Reuters, Swiatek was asked if new coach Fissette was responsible for the lack of success.
"No, this is a very harsh and unfair statement," Swiatek said.
"I can only look at the coach from my own perspective, which is the only right one for me, that is, what our work looks like every day.
"The worse results coincided with many other challenges in recent months, also in family life. I found myself at a stage of my career where I had to reformulate my thinking about myself.
Swiatek believes others have improved rather than her regressing.
"The level of tennis in the world is getting higher and higher. The girls got to know my game, they developed themselves," Swiatek said.
"Coco Gauff, who has always been a great talent, is older today and has more experience. Aryna (Sabalenka) managed to make it through the semi-finals and began to win titles."
The 23-year old has been working with sports psychologist Daria Abramowicz for the last six years and Swiatek was asked if there was a moment when she thought their cooperation had run its course.
"No. People don't know it, but practically every year there are different challenges," Swiatek replied.
"When I was suspended, I didn't want to go out on the court at all for a few weeks. It was the most difficult experience of my career. Daria is a constant support for me, a person I trust. This is my team, I decide who is in it.
"I am irritated by headlines talking about falling apart or a mental crisis. Of course, sometimes I get annoyed on the court. Sometimes I'm not as focused as I'd like.
"But I work, day in and day out, week in and week out, to be better. So there is no reason to make strange judgements or look for fatigue or burnout."